New Zealand police are investigating after the home of Te Pāti Māori election candidate Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke was invaded, vandalised, and a threatening letter left behind.
They said the burglary of a Huntly home was reported to police on Monday.
On Friday, Te Pāti Māori issued a statement saying it was the third incident to take place at Maipi-Clarke’s home this week.
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The candidate for Hauraki-Waikato said the attack was premeditated and targeted, and politically motivated.
Danger on the campaign trail had increased because of race baiting and fearmongering from right-wing parties, Maipi-Clarke said.
Despite the attack, she was not scared, she told The Hui’s Hauraki-Waikato debate.
However, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has dismissed claims his party was race baiting, and increasing danger for candidates on the campaign trail.
‘Not responsible’
Peters told Newshub Nation that notion was wrong, adding that he was not responsible for the actions of other people.
He said he would never work with Te Pāti Māori.
Te Pāti Māori said it was working with police to find a person who broke into their youngest candidate’s home.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the party was outraged and it was seeing more abusive behaviour in this election than ever before.
“You go at one of our mokopuna, you go at all of us. And it doesn’t matter how different we think, when we see our mokopuna being abused, we will unite and it will have the absolute contrary affect of what I think perpetrators are trying to do when they’re individually picking off on our youngest, on one of our babies … it’s disgusting,” she said.
The party was looking into improving security for candidates to prevent future attacks, she said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
